Enhancements include upgrades to a soccer complex at Chaffee Crossing and a county park on Feather Hill Road east of Lavaca.

The county’s soccer complex at Chaffee Crossing includes two fields. If received, the grant would allow the addition of two more soccer fields, a restroom facility with an access road and a parking lot.

The grant also would support implementation of a one-half mile walking trail at Feather Hill Road in east Sebastian County, including bringing the park within compliance of Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

The total proposed grant is $350,000, of which 50 percent would be provided by in-kind county matching, not cash, and 50 percent would be grant funds.

According to County Parks Administrator Channon Toland, if the grant is approved, the county would provide labor and equipment on each project.

Toland said getting a trail established at Feather Hill Road is a big need, as it is the only park in the county system lacking a walking trail.

A trail would make the park “a safer place for recreation and exercise,” he said.

“We are real excited about the opportunity,” Marshall said. “It’ll be a great opportunity for us, for the area, and it will give us a chance to support some areas of our program where we just haven’t had space to do it.”

Marshall said the league has grown in membership in the last three years, averaging 15 percent growth each season, and field space is becoming cramped. Receiving the grant would help reduce some of that pressure, he said.

“It supports the growth of our program and puts us in a position to qualify at the state level to host tournaments and other events that would bring in somewhere between 100-200 teams at any given time,” Marshall said. “That would equate quite a bit of income in the county and would open a lot more doors for participation in the area.”

The league has 600 recreational players, with around 65 teams at Chaffee and an additional 14 competitive traveling teams that train at the complex three to four times a week.

The league partners with the county in maintenance of the fields it uses.

If the grant is approved, the soccer fields could be ready for play spring 2016, Marshall said.

The soccer field expansion would also support the soccer program at Ben Geren.

The Ben Geren Park Soccer Complex is being expanded to include 12 soccer fields. With the grant adding the two new fields at Chaffee, it would increase that roster to four fields, giving the county 16 total, which is the minimum needed to support larger soccer tournaments and bring in more soccer play within the region.

“It would be nice to get that number of fields to attract bigger tournaments,” Toland said. “Our goal is to make the area a target for those type of tournaments.”

County Judge David Hudson agreed, adding that the soccer programs support the local economy as well as enhancing recreational opportunities in the county.

The county will submit its application for the grant this month, and expects to hear results of the application next year.